In front of the Mosque, along side a hundred year old Thai style house in the Chiang Mai night bazaar area, there is a unique weekend market. The sellers are mostly all Hill Tribe, Chinese Muslim, Shan Burmese and more.

Get there early, this market is finished by midday, as most good fresh food markets usually are in Thailand. The main objective was to shop for fresh plums which are in season, we came back to Pai with a truckload of fresh fruits, and other fresh hard to find produce.

Shopping at open air markets is the best way to select fresh produce, you’ll never feel the same entering a supermarket again. Not only is market culture a place to shop for groceries, it is a social event, a place to see and be seen. Open air fresh markets in Thailand (especially northern Thailand) are ethnic melting pots where different people gather to sell their wares and co-mingle amongst each other.

Check out the assortment of colors, natures finest paintings…

First Burma, now China. What next? Reports are in that there are plenty of ‘freak storms’ popping up in North America now too. Mother Earth is definitely taking control of the situation. Population wise, as a whole we are being leveled out by the Mother herself, she will make all wrongs right.

“Ain’t no wrong now ain’t no right, there’s only pleasure and pain…”

-Perry Ferrell

Stay tuned in people, stay ready. The future is upon us, all prophecies are coming to fruition as we approach the year 2012: The age of Aquarius. Stay on top of the Game! Treat Mother Earth with RESPECT. 1Love y’all, shine ya Light!

R.I.P. Great Master of Beats. “Too fast to live, too young to die” is the motto for some… The good always die young. Soul is immortal, and in the afterlife we go into the internet to be enjoyed by all.

RESPECT, listen to Jay Dilla, Slum Village, … it just gets better with time, like a good wine. Jay Dilla was a hip hop visionary, he went to places where no man could go, may the beats live on, timeless tracks that flow like water off the brain when it rain. Instrumental or what have you, Jay Dilla is the Picasso of sound.

What more will the Burmese be able to endure in 2008? First the ‘bloody protests’ recently where monks and nuns were brutally murdered, and now the killer typhoon reaching estimated death toles up to 100,000 + people (and animals). Mother Earth is truly trying to tell us something, without sounding too typical I won’t try to decipher what the exact message is. The message is clear and simple:

(ORAL TRADITION) LOKAH SAMASTA SUKHINO BHAVANTU
May all beings everywhere be happy and free and may the thoughts, words and actions of my own life contribute in some way to that happiness and to that freedom for all. -Sharon Gannon

This post is dedicated to perfection, its seldom that beings attain to such greatness. Mary J. Blige is one such person that if there is such a thing as perfection, she is it. Her voice is angelic, soul she is not lacking in, and her style is timeless. ‘Empty Bamboo’ would like to honor Mary J. this month with a two thumbs way up - grandmaster shout out to the lovely, Miss Mary J. Blige for being such an inspiration vocally and visually… Thank you, and God Bless.